- In three days this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited the U.S. Unveiled several drastic changes in foreign policy.
- The reaction to these policies was swift, with many criticizing him for trying to further down the Biden administration and for Pompeo to burn his own political credentials.
- “Pompeo continues with reckless, politicized foreign-policy decisions, instead of focusing on facilitating a smooth and efficient transition,” Rep. Gregory Mix told Insider in a statement.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
President Donald Trump will visit the U.S. on January 6. The riots in the Capitol building have been recklessly quiet in the days since.
Kicked on social media, and with a few allies left, Trump has said very little and seen very little. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, has been busy announcing policies that are seen as an attempt to cement his own position and give a box to President-elect Joe Biden.
U.S. on the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. According to John Gaines, a foreign policy historian and former speech writer, Trump has had a large hand in foreign policy, which is reflected in the awkward process of reaching that policy.
“This has been a chaotic, chaotic administration from day one, but I don’t think anyone would have expected to get to where they would have been in 10 days in the past week.”
Getty
Many of Trump’s diplomatic efforts have drawn scrutiny, but Pompeo announced four policy moves in four days this month that elicited a quick and comprehensive response.
On January 9, the State Department announced that the U.S. government should consider previously self-imposed sanctions on official contact with Taiwan “revoked.” On January 10, Pompeo announced that the state department would designate Yemen’s Houthi rebels as a terrorist group.
On January 11, Pompeo said the State Department had made Cuba a state sponsor of terrorism, returning it to the list five years after Obama removed it. On January 12, Pompeo claimed that Iran had become a “home base” for al Qaeda, with dramatic and widely controversial statements that many concerns could be used as a legal basis for military action.
With the move, less than two weeks before leaving the post, it was announced that “Pompeo continues with careless, politicized foreign-policy decisions,” instead of focusing on facilitating a smooth and efficient transition. Gregory Mix.Comings Committee, Insider said in a statement.
Mix added, “Pompeo’s policy announcements this week are the same kind of destructive, rushed missteps that characterized this administration’s destructive foreign policy from day one.”
Laying Mindmines
Palestinians protested on November 18, 2020, against a visit to Pompeo, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.
ABBS Momani by Getty Images / AFP
Criticism has come from current and former officials as well as from abroad.
Cuba’s position has been widely denied; The Norwegian government calls it “regrettable.” Former British MLA David Miliband, who now heads the International Rescue Committee, called Houth’s position a “pure diplomatic sabotage.” Paul Pillay, a former U.S. intelligence officer, wrote this week that the designation was “salted to the ground” before Biden took office.
While many have welcomed the review of U.S. relations with Taiwan – Taiwan itself praised the decision – for opening Taipei to take revenge on Beijing, and for criticizing that relationship for politicization.
“National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes during the Obama administration,” said Ben Rhodes, National Security Adviser during the Obama administration. It’s extremely dangerous. ” , Said on the latest episode of the pod save The World Podcast.
Former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told CNBC this week that Pompeo “in US-China relations generally salts the earth and lays landmines on Taiwan in particular.”
Pompeo at the reception in the lobby of the state headquarters, May 1, 2018.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
The review of these decisions is widely seen as an attempt to muddy the Biden administration with a bureaucratic burden and would open it up to political attacks if it releases them.
A Trump administration official told CNN that the goal was to “start so many fires that it would be difficult … to get them all out.”
“If Pompeo is nothing else, it’s a guide to what we’ll hear for the next four years.” “There will be very sensitive criticisms of Biden … from the Iranians, the Chinese falcons and the Cuban falcons.”
It is not clear what it will take to undo last-minute policies. Some can be undone with a few signatures. Others, such as the designation of terrorism, generally need reviews to ensure that the design does not support terrorism.
Rhodes said the Biden team “should not adhere to certain misconceptions” in order to reverse the policies pursued by the political and Pentecostal meeting.
‘It will be better when America leaves’
Andrew Harnick / AP Images
When Pompeo took over the State Department in the spring of 2018, he said he wanted to “reverse his change,” but Pompeo often distanced himself from the department and moved closer to Trump, embracing the president’s baseless objections to the US election. Was. Explained the importance of free and fair elections abroad.
The new policies, like those of his predecessors, are seen as Pompeo’s maneuver for a future presidency. But if he counts on his record rides, the trip will be shorter, Gains said.
“I believe that Pompeo’s legacy and achievements will be small, just as any misdeed he has committed will be small on the scale of American foreign policy,” said Gains, a National Security Council history writer.
“That doesn’t mean it won’t work to solve problems. It just means it can be done,” Gains added, adding that the recovery of the George HW Bush administration from Reagan’s “Wild West” foreign policy. .
Mix told Insider that his committee is “ready to work with President Biden to restore American global leadership and move our country forward with the devastation wrought by President Trump and his chief crony, Pompeo.”
For some in Kansas, where Pompeo used a seat in Congress to boost his national profile with attacks on then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the end may not come soon.
“In about a week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s service will end mercifully,” the Kansas City Star’s editorial board wrote this week. “America will be better off when he leaves office. Kansas will be better off if he decides to stay away from his adopted home state forever.”
